An Unbreakable Brotherhood

I speak with Josh Nelson a Ruby player at Southern Virginia University about his experiences in Rugby. He talks about the many different cultures that collide but how they are able to unite through song and praises the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Alright, welcome back everyone to another episode of On the Path, where I'm here to meet with someone, another athlete every single week, to learn about their process to become, um, to get to the level that they're at, playing their sport and also keeping a Christ-centered life and remembering him in their lives. So thank you for tuning in to another episode and um I'd like to take a second to introduce my guest that I have with me today. Uh so today my guest is Josh Nelson. Josh comes from Payson, Utah, and Josh is currently a junior here at Southern Virginia University studying business management. Josh is on the rugby team, and his position is the he is the scrum half. Um maybe he can explain that for us, but I cannot. Um and a little fun fact about Josh is that in his family he has he has only sisters, so it's him and then five sisters, you said?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Five sisters, yep.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Yeah, so that's Josh. Welcome, Josh. We're happy to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

unknown 1:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Um let's kind of get started with this first question that I have for you. When did your relationship with Christ become personal for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

It's a great question. Um I think I've always had a personal relationship with Christ, but I used to come to SVU uh before my mission and um going through life and stuff, and it was it was hard to navigate life. And I realized life with Christ is a lot easier to navigate life with him. So he's able to help me get through some hard situations and things, and he's able to change my life. So um I'd say probably my my sophomore year here at SVU is where it kind of just started happening, and he's been able to change my life. So um, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

What what kind of made you realize that? What made you start to understand that a little bit better?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah, I I think understanding that I mean I have a loving heavenly father, that I grew up in the church, had wonderful parents that taught me about the covenant path and the importance of it. And when I decided that I wanted to know this for my life, like I saw my parents were happy, my siblings were happy, friends around me were happy. I was like, what? Why am I not happy? Like, what am I missing in my life? And I was I was praying one day and I I noticed that my life wasn't focused on Christ. And I was just praying, I was just like, all right, like, maybe Father, I believe, I know it's real, I know it's true. Um, and I just understood that I had a Father in heaven who loved me, and he sent his son Jesus Christ who um went through everything for me. That he he suffered uh in the garden to take upon all my sins um and provided me the opportunity to repent, which I was able to feel the the love and the cleansing effect of the atonement within my life, which made me very grateful for um my savior and being able to focus on him and just want to be able to be with him and to serve him ever since he's changed my life. So grateful for him.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yeah, that's awesome. I think starting to understand that I think I kind of had a similar experience where I was like, why is everyone else happy? Like, why is everyone else succeeding and doing good? And I'm like, I don't understand it. And then there's a friend that was talking to me about really paying attention in seminary and um reading my scriptures more often, and then I started to kind of realize and understand why everyone else was like so happy all the time because they were keeping that Christ-centered life and remembering keeping him in the mid in the center of their lives and remembering that. So once I was able to do that, I was like, okay, I understand that. I even had people point out to me, they're like, you know, Ben, you're you're happier, like there's something different about you right now. And I'm like, I don't know what I did, but it's really that time when I started to change my life and remember to keep him at the center, and that's also when I started to succeed in other things, become a better student, a better athlete, all these different things. I was able to see the broader picture. So I definitely think it's super awesome, super important that you were able to notice that too, and understand that all these people around you are happy because they're keeping Christ at the center of their lives, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Yes, absolutely. I I think I mean the same for me. I I used to struggle with like school and like reading and comprehending stuff, and then I started reading my scriptures and focusing more on Christ, and like I was able to understand more. I was like, this is crazy. Yeah, and I saw within school that my grades are getting much better. I was succeeding in school, she's getting better on the field and off the field. So I mean it's God loves us and wants to succeed in all our endeavors that we love, so it's very cool.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

For sure. And um that kind of pulls us into this other question, kind of talking about you on the field, right? You're a rugby player, rugby is intense and aggressive, right? It's a pretty physical sport. Um, how are you able to balance competitive competitiveness with Christ-like character in the game of rugby?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, that's a great question. I think um I've been playing rugby for 10 years, give or give or take, I don't know. Um but just having understanding that we're all human, we're all here to learn and to grow and to develop our our lives and our paths. But playing rugby at a high level is is very competitive. I mean, you're you want to win the game, you want to be able to compete at a high level. And at times you just want to be able to focus and do what you can, but at the end of the day, I mean, there's still your opponent, and you gotta respect your opponent. And if you don't respect your opponent, you'll just be shocked and they'll they'll hit you in the mouth harder than you thought, and you'll be like, wow, this is a wake-up call. And then there's been times in high school where we were like, my team was we were very good in high school, and um we're like, oh, we could walk in this team and no problem. And they came out the first 20 minutes, and they were like, we're like, wow, what is going on here? Um, and I I've learned a very valuable lesson that day is it's not you can be the best team in the world, but you still have to be humble. Um and Jesus Christ was the greatest example of just being humble. He didn't he was great at explaining things to us, but he's also great at letting others know like his presence in the way of like not forcing it, but showing through a great way of love and compassion and um helping by respecting the opposing team and where they come from, they're also working hard doing their best. Um, as we all are, that we just want to be able to play the sport that we love. And um just treating it as like we're brothers for the full 80 minutes you're you're going back and forth, but at the end of the whistle, you're congratulating each other, like good game. It's very I'd say it's a gentleman's sport in a way. Um a lot of sportsmanship and uh focusing on Christ has been able to help me see these opponents like they're they're not as big or scary, but they're just playing the sport that they love like I do. And if that makes sense, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Um I think that's awesome. And how how would you say that you or do you have a specific example of when you were able to show the Christ-like character on the field or during competition?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yeah, um I can't remember what year it was. It could have it might have been in high school or here in college, but we were we're playing a game, and obviously you want to be able to celebrate with your your teammates. And um this is in high school. My team went undefeated that season. We were playing, and uh the other team was working hard, and they we were been I have some great friends on that team, and um the other team we were playing, and we my team ended up winning, thank goodness, and that was a great opportunity to win with the team. But with players that I played with in the past on different teams, they ended up losing the game, and um just being able to go up to them and say, Hey brother, like I appreciate you, and um you still made it this far of just like letting them know like they still did it great, they succeeded, even though they didn't get the outcome they wanted. Um just being able to because I've been there, I've lost before, and it's it's never fun, but it's much bigger than just the the sport of winning, but it's friendships, brotherhoods that will last a lifetime instead of 80 minutes or however long the sport lasts.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

It was an opportunity to show my my love for him and also um show my love that Christ would do the same. I hope that he would comfort and then go have fun with your team afterwards.

SPEAKER_03 8:47

Yeah, for sure. I think I think that's super important. I think a lot of times sportsmanship plays a big role in it, it's it's kind of I guess it's kind of a parallel that we can connect sportsmanship with the Christ-like character, right? Because yes, we go out as competitors, everyone's a competitor on the field, on the court, whatever it is. Um and we see that everyone recognizes that that we're going against each other, but we're also taught this thing called sportsmanship, and it's like, okay, I'm supposed to go out, I'm supposed to want to beat this team, but now you want me to love them too, and like care for them, respect them. It's like what? Like, how am I supposed to do that? But it really shows character and who a person really is when they're able to respect other people, to respect their opponents, whether they're winning or losing. If you can keep your composure and um go up to someone after a game, after a hard loss for or maybe you win and it's a hard loss for them and you go up and you're just hey, like you did good. Keep going. Like it's it's it really shows the kind of person that someone is. It really shows that that love and respect that they have, not only for the game, but for other people. And it's it's something that people need to to learn from and be able to develop. So having good sportsmanship being kind is something that will help games be better than they are, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Absolutely. I think it would just it takes a lot of courage um for that to happen because obviously you want to be able to go celebrate and do whatever, and it takes courage to walk away from your team for a second and to congratulate someone else or say, hey, good game, even if you lose that. Um courage plays a role in it, and like you said, of like keeping that composure and everything. I think Christ is also just huge of having that that poise and not cracking under pressure. Yeah. That he's able to um show us how to weather the storm.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Yeah, for sure. I think that's that's that's um that's a big thing. That's super important for us to remember kind of when we're competing, is remembering that Christ-like love, keeping him there because uh we're always taught do as he did, right? And maybe Christ he didn't he wouldn't play basketball, he didn't play rugby, he didn't do all these things, but we can definitely picture how he would act or react to certain situations and how he would treat people before and after games, right? He would always treat them with love and respect and and care for them no matter what, whether they beat him or whether he beat them. It's kind of an interesting thing to put him into sports, but it's definitely uh something that that is possible and something that as Christian athletes we need to remember to keep him there and remember that he is the one that that gave us these skills and abilities, and he's the reason that we're there competing at this at the level that we are, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Um let's talk a little bit more about rugby. So we see here at Southern Virginia University, right? We kind of have a different Christ-like um uh a Christ-based, I guess, our faith, we are faith school based around the teachings of Jesus Christ, right? Um and we kind of see that in a lot of the sports teams here. And kind of what I'm uh I'm getting to here is that we kind of see rugby is built on brotherhood, right? And how would you say that you be you or your team, your teammates, your coach, how do you bring Christ into that culture?

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Yeah, um, a lot of the the team um are from the islands of different cultures of Tonga, Samoa, Samoa, and uh Fiji, and they all those islands are just filled with Christ culture. And so I mean it comes with uh the team, and it's it's cool to see here at SVU. Obviously, we have Church Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints faith-based, um, and we we pray before our games, we sing hymns in um island um languages, and it's super cool, and it's a great way to fill the spirit. And it um it hype, I guess it would hype me up a little bit um singing these hymns and just giving praise to the Lord because it brings me confidence that he'll be with me within the game. Um and just the brotherhood of having practices and working with each other, going through the hard times. Um, it just builds it builds character, it builds unity with one another. And um having our coach Paul Sique, he's phenomenal, it's a great resume. Um, I'm grateful for him and his coaching for this team, and he's been able to help me understand more of the sport than I have before and breaks it down. And it's just always helping someone become better and better. That we're playing rugby on the field, but we are trying to become better disciples of Jesus Christ, and that's the the end goal for all fifth all 15 players that start on the field, or having people are on the roster of the rugby team, that we're all just becoming better disciples of Jesus Christ, and that brotherhood helps us become better people, like that helps answer the question.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Yeah, no, for sure. I think I think that that's that's super awesome the way that um I love hearing when teams sing together because we don't all we don't hear that a lot, right? Maybe you it happens often in other places, maybe I haven't seen it a lot. But I love I love thinking about that and just the thought of that in general, because for me, yes, the music brings the spirit. That's a way for me that I can easily feel the spirit and understand, and like you said, praise God, praise the Lord, and definitely through songs through him, we're able to do that. But kind of um tell us a little bit more about the hymns, or if there's a specific one that you really like that that you're able to sing and that really helps you, like you said, you feel pumped up from it. What's what's one that really helps you feel that way and get ready to go out and play?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Um we got some new ones that I I don't know how to sing quite yet. But um the boys they sing and it sounds great. I try to sing along with them. Um I'm not the greatest singer, but just being able to express the the love that I have for the Lord through singing um is and it doesn't sound good because I'm not great at singing, but um I would say probably my favorite one that I know the most is philo philau. And I'm not quite sure what it translates to. But I would assume it translates like to like just praising God and thank him for what he's done for us, um, follow Jesus. But I'm not quite sure, so I apologize, team. Uh forgive me, but I love when we sing it because it's it's a it's a beautiful hymn, and um that's the one I know the most and it's been able to help me a lot. Sometimes I'm just be I'm singing it in my head or hymning it, humming it. I don't know how to say it, but it it just calms me down, so I'm grateful for what the culture of what I bring to with me and I can keep to myself and share it. Um but yeah, I'll have to find the translation of it, but I don't know off the top of my head, but it's a great hymn. I think it's in the new hymn book now. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

That's awesome. Um kind of going along with your team and the culture, like you explained, there's people kind of they come from everywhere, right? A lot of different cultures and things that go into the rugby team here at SVU. We kind of see that a lot. There's a lot of diversity, a lot of differences. And um what would you say is the I guess I mean you've kind of shared a little bit about, but what is the thing that really brings you all together? Obviously, rugby is a part of that, but what is another thing that bonds that brotherhood? What's the way that you're all able to join together and compete together, even though you come from so many different places?

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Yeah, no, it's a great question. I we all have every single person on the team has their own why of why they're here. Um but I think what really brings us together is yes, we all come from different backgrounds, different places, um, different situations, but that we all made the sacrifice to leave home, leave our families to to come out to Buena Vista. I mean, there's there's not much here besides SPU and cookout or whatever, whatever it is, like um, and getting an education, and we're all we're all trying our best, and I think um what just really connects the team is yeah, we've had a a rough season of some losses, a few wins here and there. And it's always fun to win. But uh we played recently Queens, and it was a close game. We all we barely lost that game, but after the game we were just chatting, we were talking, and our captain, um hopefully doesn't mind me name-dropping him, but Poney, he's a phenomenal example to me. And um, he was just talking to the team, just like letting us know like we all come from different backgrounds, we're all sacrificing to be here. Um and it just hit me like holy cow, like this is crazy. Like, we're not bigger than one another, we need each other. Um, and it really was just able to bring us together, and we we shed some tears, we cried. Um because that's a brotherhood. It sucks to to lose together, but it's great to win together. But ultimately, like we're all here because one way, shape, or form, God has brought us here. Families have made sacrifices for us to be here. Um that and we share the connection of rugby, but we share the connection that we're we're brothers and we'll be brothers forever till the day we die and after that.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

So no, for sure. Um, kind of talking about wins and losses, what are your thoughts? What do you um what do you think or do you believe that God cares about the outcome of games? And kind of talk to us about why or why not. What do you think behind that?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

No, I I definitely think I mean it could go both ways for sure. Uh when I was was younger, um playing little league soccer or whatever it is, like I remember praying, like Heavenly Father, like please let my team win. And we would lose. And it's like, what the heck? Like, does that care? Yeah. Um and I was I was bummed, but I understood like obviously, like God is invested in me, he loves me. Um, he cares about the outcome of sports, wins, losses, whatever, because it matters to you. Um there's a time, we'll give some like different backgrounds. Um, I think it was in eighth grade, seventh or eighth grade, we're putting that championship, and I was praying like before the games, like, Henry Father, like this would be awesome. My team can win. We worked super hard this season. Um, and we were we were losing in the the first half, but our team didn't give up. We kept playing, we were fighting hard, and I knew that at the end of the game that we would come out and win. And at my understanding of that level of that age, like I don't know how or why, but I just knew that we'd win and because the team we worked so hard together. That Heavenly Father saw our efforts and he helped us win the game, and we had energy, strength, stamina to get through it. And um I would say that God does care about the outcomes to help build testimonies for individuals and uh wins and losses have been able to help build my testimony. Um sometimes when we lose, I it's like a reality check. Okay, what do I need to change within my life to whether focus more on Christ or be better at school or just understanding how I can grow closer to my brothers on the field? That whatever situation you're given, I'm a huge firm believer that you can create opportunities out of a win or a loss. And we're all agents to act for ourselves, to do what we want to do. We have our agency to choose. And um, if we lose, okay, come back to the drawing board like Henry Father will help us by doing small and simple things, will help us great things become brought to past. Um and hopefully, like we can continue to fix what we need to fix and to win for the future here at SVU for rugby. Um, but I would say the loss that we had against Queens was definitely I want to say it sucked to lose. And I don't want to say like, oh God wanted us to lose that game, but it's our perspective. Of okay, what do we learn from this game? How can we um improve from it? And um what can we do to change? And he'll help us along the way. He's not gonna abandon us or leave us alone. Um obviously it's always fun to win. And I I would say it's a bit of both, that he he cares uh what the wins and losses and he'll support us no matter what happens. But you always gotta stay humble and keep trying if you keep winning. Um you lose and continue to stay humble and just improve and prove yourself there if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Absolutely. No, I think that my thoughts on this question, I I definitely think that God cares. And I think He cares I think He cares that we lose. Like we can think about it as we we we go into a big game that we've been preparing for all week and we lose. And it's like what what just happened? And you ask your questions like does did did God want us to lose? Like, was he expecting that? And I honestly, in a way, I want to say yes. Because when we think about losing and the outcome of games, God cares because he wants us to learn and grow and become the best that we can. So maybe we're not just learning lessons as athletes, as as someone who's trying to get better at their sport, but we're learning life lessons. And currently I'm in this philosophy of sport class actually with your teammate Poney. Um he always has great insights, he's a really wise man. Yes. Um, and we talk a lot about how um what we get out of sports besides just athletic things, right? It's philosophy class. Philosophy is great. Um But something that we've been talking about recently is like, are do we learn more life lessons from sports or athletic lessons? And I think growing up, I've definitely learned a lot more life lessons, right? You're able to learn a lot more. So I think going into big games, we want to win. We we we feel like we deserve it, but then we lose, and it's like, okay, now we need to think. Like, what you guys are able to think about is what can we do better, like how can we improve, and how can we come back stronger the next game? And I definitely think that's a huge role that losing plays for us as athletes, as humans, as disciples of Jesus Christ, tying that into the gospel, we see that we're not always gonna be the strongest, most outgoing person. We're not gonna be the greatest disciple 100% of the time. Even Jesus Christ, his disciples during his time, they they weren't always the strongest, right? They like Peter, he denied Christ three times, right? We see these things, but we can see that we can learn from these experiences because we saw Peter, he came back, he became stronger, right? He became even better and wiser. Um, but we see that as disciples we can do that too. Like, maybe like for me and you, we weren't able to see why we weren't as happy as other people, but then we looked and we we researched for ourselves, created that personal relationship, and it was like, boom, this is why, and these are the things I need to do better to keep Jesus Christ in my life. I need to read my scriptures, I need to do all these things, and it's just super awesome for us to be able to see and understand what we need to do to be happy, to remember all of these things.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Um yeah. Absolutely, I would 100% 100% agree. Um, it reminded me of a scripture, if I could share that real quick. Yeah, go ahead. Um, of just like um just losing or winning or whatever it is that I mean we're here in this life to learn and to grow. And there's a scripture in 2 Nephi chapter 28, verse 30. Um, and it says, For behold, thus saith the Lord God, I'll give it unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here little and there a little. And blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts and lend ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom for learn wisdom, for unto him that receiveth I will give more, and from them shall I have enough, from them will be taken away even which that they have. So I think that scripture relates to what you're talking about of like that God does care. Um obviously line upon line, if we lose, come back to the drawing board, figure it out, um, turn to God, and he'll help us understand. And if we give an ear to his counsel, he'll he'll help us succeed more. If we we don't, then womf womp, we're we're just ignoring it, but we'll just have to come back again and try again, and he'll be merciful and extend his arm again to us.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

So yeah. Exactly. I love that. And I love that verse. Thanks for sharing that. Um I think we're gonna kind of wrap things up here a little bit. We're gonna go to the final two segments that I'll have you share. Um, so I'll first have you share your favorite Bible verse, um, kind of read it and explain to us why you like it and how it's kind of helped you throughout your life, and then following that I'll have you share your best piece of advice that you have for athletes who are striving to stay on the path to follow Christ and to remember him.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Okay, yeah. Um I'm gonna grab the Bible verse real quick.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

And I was just I'll read the first part. It says, Be still and know that I am God. Um and I really love this verse simply because um God is inviting us to be still, to know that he's God and He's He's ultimately aware of us. And sometimes like life's crazy, it's chaotic, it's going, sports are crazy. Um, but sometimes we just need to be still. And currently I've been trying to work on just being still more of being able to understand and know who God is, how can I invite his influence, his spirit more into my life, and it's just by pausing and being still, just shutting out the distraction in the world. And I've been able to grow and love that verse a little bit more and more each day as I just been able to be still and know that God is aware of me, He knows who I am, He knows that I have five amazing sisters, He knows that I love rugby, He knows I'm trying to gain education for bettering my discipleship and for my future family or whatever God has in store for me. Um but just to be still and know that God is God, that He loves me. So that's my that's my current favorite Bible verse right now.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

That's awesome. That's great. And then what's your piece of advice for an athlete striving to stay on the path?

SPEAKER_00 29:16

My current piece of advice would be just take one day at a time. I think a lot of times here as athletes, we want to become the best very quickly. But to be consistent in the little things, um to be diligent in those small things because they will help grow into great big things. Um and to narrow it down, just make it life more simple because taking it in just bite-sized chunks will help us understand, and maybe it's just writing our goals down what we want to accomplish and make it smaller. But I would say don't be too overwhelmed with the craziness of the world, or just trust God, be still, know that he's aware of you, um, that his son Jesus Christ understands you. And stick to the path, because we already know who ultimately wins at the end of the journey, and that's Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father. Um and I know those things to be true, and I'm grateful for the Savior and His sacrifice that He made for each and every one of us. And I know that as we stay on the covenant path and follow him, we'll find greater peace and joy, and um we can find relief through the atonement. And I say in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

SPEAKER_03 30:29

Amen. Thank you, thank you, Josh. I appreciate that. And thanks for being here today, taking this time out of your day to be able to share these experiences and these thoughts with everyone else. Um and thank you, everyone else, for tuning in to another episode of On the Path. Remember to like and share it with your friends and family, remember to share it with those athletes out there who may be stuck, who may be lost, who may be confused. Help them understand that Christ is what's important and who they need in their lives to succeed and to to get to the higher level, to continue to progress and become better every single day. Um, but thank you again, and always remember everyone to stay on the path.